by Floyd, Jacie
“The first appointment’s at noon.”
“...Okay.”
Inside the parking garage, at last, she pressed the button for the elevator.
“You know, Dylan had the right idea for once.” Wyatt hesitated, holding the elevator door open.
“About what?”
“Maybe we should get a bite to eat.”
“Before you get laid?” She sniffed. “No, thank you.”
He stepped in beside her and let the doors slide close. “You sure? I’d probably settle for just dinner if the other doesn’t sound appealing.”
“I had soup with Sean.”
The doors separated. Kara’s footsteps echoed on the concrete as she moved toward her car and removed her keys from her purse. Stopping beside her Volvo, she flicked the beeper to unlock the doors. Before she got in, he hooked her by the elbow, pulling her around to face him.
“I wonder.” With their faces inches apart, his breath warmed twin spots on her cheeks. “How does Dylan know how you feel about onion-breath?”
“The usual way.” A little part of her hoped, but doubted, that Wyatt would be the tiniest bit jealous at the thought of her and Dylan together.
“This way?” He leaned into her, covering her mouth with his.
Heedlessly, she gave herself over to the moment. Sinking into the pleasure, drowning in desire, and letting her heart overrule her head. As his hands began to seek bare skin, the barriers of wool, cashmere and leather couldn’t be ignored. By the time he managed to unbutton her coat, her hands and knees were shaking with the cold—or so she told herself—and pushed him away.
“What was that about?” With stiff fingers, she moved to refasten her buttons.
“Dylan and Ryan are my best friends in the world. They’re more like brothers than friends. But I could see they were interested in you. And before you start getting any ideas about them, or anyone else, I’m staking my claim.” Using his body, he pressed hers against the car.
“Claim?” She brought her hands up between them, either to hold him off or for the pleasure of touching him. Even she wasn’t sure which. “What claim?”
“I’m calling dibs on your next affair.”
She crossed her arms, certain this time that she intended to put some distance between them. “I’m not having an affair.”
“You may not think so, but I don’t think you’ll be able to help it.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“It was three years after your husband died that we first met. Now, it’s been another three years, and we meet again. I figure I set the precedent. If you’re going to have an affair every three years, it may as well be with me.”
“Hah! For all you know, I’ve slept with every man in New York since the last time we were together.”
“I considered the possibility,” he admitted. “After I saw you with Dylan tonight, I couldn’t think of anything else. But now I know the truth.” His fingers caressed her cheek. “Tonight, you kissed me like you did at my cabin that very first night. And that’s one kiss I’ll never forget.”
“Hey there.” Wyatt’s cheerful tone on the phone played havoc with her mood on the cold and overcast January day. “I take possession of my house today. When can Sean come over to see his new room?”
“You want Sean to come over?”
“You can come, too.”
Nearly hyperventilating, Kara couldn’t find the breath to respond. She laid her cell down and pressed her forehead against the desktop. Taking several deep breaths, she wished she had a paper bag handy.
“Kara?” Concern laced through the single word. “You there? Are you all right?”
“Not feeling very well.” Despising herself for letting fear rule her, she finally managed to choke out a response. But the picture of Wyatt putting Sean in his car and driving away with him made her feel ill. “Can you call me back later?”
After her hands stopped shaking from the phone call, the doorbell rang with a special delivery packet. Taking the bulky envelope from the messenger, her hands started shaking again. She checked in on Sean and Angela, the Tagliatti helper of the day, and returned to her office to open the sheaf of legal documents.
With a feeling of dread, Kara looked over the papers from Wyatt’s lawyer and considered her options. She’d have her own attorney look at them, of course, but that would cause only a minor delay. Wyatt seemed intent on not backing down.
Her daily anxiety level had escalated dangerously since he’d reappeared in her life. Yet there he was, interfering with her child, messing up her mind with his declarations, igniting her desire with his kisses, and stirring up her worst fears with his presence.
He’d been correct at the parking garage in assuming that it had been three years since she’d had sex. During that time, she’d been pregnant, then concentrated her energy on her new baby, her house, and her career, while steadfastly ignoring the urgings of her body. Dylan’s rather obvious passes notwithstanding, she hadn’t received many other offers.
If she wanted sexual release and, apparently, she did, Wyatt was the last person she should consider. Been there, done that, had the baby to prove it, to rephrase an expression. She wanted him. She had to admit that.
Alone in her bed at night, she’d caught herself too many times thinking about him to deny the attraction. But she didn’t want the complications he’d bring.
As she had done so many times since that night in the parking garage, Kara pushed aside the memory of his mouth and his body pressed against hers. She tried to focus on her more immediate problems.
Damn, she threw the papers aside. She hated to see his rights spelled out so clearly. She didn’t know how she could make herself honor such an agreement.
“Kara?” After a tap on the door, a very pregnant Josie Olivetti trundled into the room. “Angela said I’d find you up here. Am I interrupting?”
“No, no, it’s great to see you.” Kara hastily shoved the papers into a drawer—out of sight, out of mind—before swiveling her chair around to face her building contractor’s wife. With boys about the same age, they’d become fast friends during the months of Kara’s remodeling project. “Come on in. Are you alone?”
Josie looked at her curiously as she lowered her bulk into a hard-backed chair. “Today’s my doctor’s appointment, remember? You said I could leave the boys here so I can enjoy the special pleasures of a pelvic exam in private.”
“Oh, sure.” Kara rubbed her hands over her face trying to energize her brain cells. “No problem. Angela and I will both be here all afternoon.”
“No shows to review?” Josie attempted to cross her legs, gave up, and crossed her swollen ankles instead.
“No, I don’t have anything scheduled until Tuesday.”
Josie pointed to the wall calendar. “Today is Tuesday.”
“Oh, no! What time is it?” She surged out of her chair, turning panicky eyes toward the clock. “Two? Oh, well, that’s all right then.” She sank back into her seat. “I don’t have to be in town until six. What time’s your appointment?”
“Two forty-five.” Josie struggled to stand. “I can get one of the other Tagliattis to watch the kids.”
“No need for that.” Kara waved her back into her seat.“Angela’s here if I have to leave before you get back.”
“But Jonathon and David are such a handful these days. They’re heathens compared to Sean.” Josie patted her belly. “I just hope this little girl is quiet and sweet and has tea parties with dolls she doesn’t try to decapitate.”
“You can only wish.” Kara chuckled at the thought of the rambunctious Olivetti household harboring such a subdued creature. “Not much longer ‘till you find out, anyway.”
“Two more weeks.”
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Except for the bloating and the swelling and the indigestion, sure.” She rubbed her hand across her tummy before asking casually, “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Me? Why would you think I’m not?”
“We-ell.” Josie hesitated. “You looked a little pale when I came in.”
Kara pushed her hair off her forehead. “I hate the snow. January is an awful month. And February is even worse.” How long would the horrible memories haunt her?
“That’s understandable, but is that what’s troubling you? I've heard rumors...”
Swiveling back toward her desk, Kara became fascinated with realigning the office supplies on her desk pad. Stapler, paper clips, tape—suddenly she needed all of them to be just so. Josie remained silent throughout the realignment. Kara turned to meet her worried gaze. “What have you heard?”
“Rumors about a gorgeous man who claims to be Sean’s father. Apparently he looks a lot like that photograph above our desk.” At Kara’s silence, her friend continued, “Aren’t you pleased to have him here?”
Kara’s hands floated up helplessly. “I’m having a little trouble adjusting.”
“Maria said he seemed nice,” Josie ventured.
“Oh, yes, he’s nice.” Kara blinked to erase the image of just how nice he could be. “If he weren’t so nice, damn him, it wouldn’t be so difficult to tell him to bug off.”
“Ah, I see,” said the former psychologist.
“What?” Kara had confided much to Josie in the last three years, but kept the identity of Sean’s father from her and everyone else. Now, like so many other things, the choice to keep her secrets had been taken from her.
“I see that you don’t want him here, but not why.”
Kara crossed her arms and considered. “I’ve had Sean to myself for so long that it’s hard for me to think of sharing him with anyone.”
The pregnant lady studied the picture of Wyatt hanging over Kara’s desk. “That’s a good reason for not wanting him here now.” Josie returned her gaze to Kara. “But why didn’t you want him involved from the beginning?”
Kara nibbled a thumbnail, tempted to pour out the whole sorry tale. She settled on a small part of the whole. “When I was pregnant, he said he didn’t want to be a father. I don’t understand why he wants to be one now.”
“Has he always known about Sean?”
“Not until recently
“Ah,” Josie repeated.
“Quit saying that,” Kara ordered. “You sound like a talk-show therapist.”
“I don’t know what else to say, and this is really none of my business.” The woman rested her forearms on her rounded tummy like it was a beach ball floating by and gave an inviting, motherly smile. “Unless you want to talk about it.”
Opening up about her personal life didn’t came easily to Kara, but she was befuddled enough to try. And with Josie’s background, she’d be the perfect choice. “Maybe part of the reason I chose Wyatt to be the father of my child was because he lived in California, and I thought he wouldn’t want to bother with a serious attachment.”
Josie nodded. “And you didn’t tell him about Sean because...?”
“Because,” Kara said, drawing the word out before finishing in a candid rush, “I didn’t want to know for sure if he wanted to be involved or not.”
“And now that you know he does want to be, you feel...?”
“Guilty. And angry. And scared.”
“You’re a patchwork quilt of emotional indecision, aren’t you? What do you plan to do?”
“On one level, I think, Wyatt’s a wonderful man who will make a terrific father, if that’s what he chooses to do. I don’t know what I’m so afraid of.”
Her friend’s expression suggested an all-knowing Madonna who pitied mere mortals for trying to lie to her. Kara just hoped she didn’t give that understanding little “Ah” again. She’d hate to have to smack a pregnant woman.
“And when you stop kidding yourself that way, what do you really think?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Kara, we both know what you’re afraid of. The only way to overcome your fear is by admitting to yourself—and to Sean’s father—that you’re afraid of losing everything that matters to you, the same way you lost it before.”
God, Kara hated it when other people saw right through her. It made it so much harder for her to deceive herself.
The next day, with Wyatt in the passenger seat and Sean in his car seat behind her, Kara drove up the long tree-lined driveway and stopped in front of the elegant colonial mansion. “You live here?” Her voice squeaked with disbelief. “You bought Whitley Manor?”
“No.” Wyatt unbuckled his seat belt. “I’m leasing it.”
His answer irritated her more than it reassured her. “Not planning on a permanent relocation, right?”
He got out of the car and opened the rear door. “I have an option to buy.”
Kara got out on her side and hurried around to release Sean from the safety seat before Wyatt had a chance to do it. He grabbed the diaper bag, retrieved the house keys from his jeans pocket, and then led the way up the front steps to the double doors.
“It’s not fully furnished yet,” he warned as they stepped into a cavernous foyer that reminded her of one of the Borgia palaces from the Italian marble floor to the watered silk wallpaper.
“You asked us to come over.” She tried hard not to show her awe at the house he intended to temporarily call home.
“I know.” He smiled with infectious pleasure. “I couldn’t wait to see Sean here. He’ll probably enjoy running through the empty rooms more than he’ll like it after it’s furnished.”
“No doubt.” She momentarily forgot herself and returned his smile as their footsteps echoed across the marble. Looking around at the living room, Kara reminded herself that Wyatt had taken this house for his own benefit and for Sean’s, not hers. Despite the internal caveat, she couldn’t squelch her approval at his choice.
“How much redecorating are you going to do?” The frustrated artist in her ached to have a hand in the project. Leave it to Wyatt to run across a gem of a house at the exact moment he needed one. Even unfurnished, she could see all of its glorious potential.
“Not much.” He flipped a switch in the spacious dining room. An enormous upside-down-wedding-cake chandelier scattered prisms of light across the bare walls and ceiling. “They’ll send some things out from the store, but I don’t plan to go overboard.”
“Since this is just temporary.” Why did she keep harping on that?
“Since I already have two other furnished houses.”
“Oh, right.” She touched the intricate carving along the chair rail. “What are you going to do about them?”
“My friend from Columbia is using the beach house.”
“And the cabin?” Just mentioning their special place seemed to stir up the feeling of intimacy between them that always swirled just beneath the surface.
“I never let anyone else go there,” he reminded her.
“Just Allie.” Even that teasing comment evoked too many memories for comfort.
“Just Allie and Xander. And Ryan and Dylan have visited a few times.” Lifting his hands toward her, his eyes deepened to a familiar shade of desire. She held her breath, expecting him to touch her cheek or stroke her hair, but he took Sean from her instead. “Come on, partner. Let’s take off your coat before I show you your new room.”
“We haven’t seen all of the first floor yet.” Kara unbuttoned Sean’s jacket and then her own. “Where’s the kitchen?”
“Through there.” Wyatt nodded at a door on the far side of the dining room, set Sean down, and then dropped their coats over the stair rail.
Taking Sean’s hand, Kara intended to just peek at the kitchen from the doorway, but her enthusiasm drew her in. “Wow, this is great. Is that the original cabinetry?”
“So I understand.”
“How big is this refrigerator?” She opened one of the double doors and peered into the empty freezer.
“It’s huge, isn’t it?” He chuckled. “I think it’s even bigger than the one at Mother’s. Ap
parently the Whitleys had a large family and did a lot of entertaining.”
“What are you going to do with a kitchen this size?” Kara frowned. “You don’t even know how to cook.”
“I’ll do what I always do, hire someone. Know anybody?”
“The Tagliattis or Olivettis are sure to, if you’d like me to ask.” She bit her lip, wishing she could take the offer back. Involving herself in his household arrangements was not conducive to maintaining her emotional distance from him.
“Please do.” He watched as Sean investigated the cabinets beneath the work island.
Kara snapped her fingers. “That reminds me.” She removed a brown paper bag from her purse and handed it to him. “Here.”
“What is it?”
“A housewarming gift. Sort of.”
With a small smile playing around the corners of his lips, he pulled out one of the shrink-wrapped items. “I repeat, what is it?”
“Baby guards, but I didn’t know you’d need so many.” She held one inside a cabinet to demonstrate. “You attach them to the doors and drawers so Sean can’t open them when you aren’t looking.” She took the bag back from Wyatt and dumped the contents on the counter, riffling through them. “And here are some socket plugs, too, to prevent him from sticking sharp objects into electrical outlets.”
“Thanks, I guess. No one’s ever gotten me baby guards or socket plugs before.” He leaned his elbows near hers on the island. “Is this really necessary?”
A spasm of fear squiggled down Kara’s spine. How could he question her advice regarding so serious a matter as Sean’s safety? “It is if Sean’s ever going to come over here.”
“Now that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?” Although he lounged casually forward, he regarded her carefully, his amber eyes highlighted with suspicion. “Are you going to allow Sean to come over here, Kara? Or anywhere with me, for that matter? I’ve noticed how you rarely let him out of the house and never without you.”
“Mommy!” Sean’s voice broke the tension that stretched between them. “Come find me.”
“Oh no, Sean, where are you?” Never before had she been so happy to be distracted by a game of hide and seek.